


Two Letters

by Wetheadx



Category: The Good Wife (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 01:02:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5354975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wetheadx/pseuds/Wetheadx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kalinda has been gone for 17 months, after episode 6x22. Alicia wonders if she will ever see her again.<br/>AU after season 6 finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Letters

**Author's Note:**

> As with everything, I do not own these characters. They are the property of the Kings. No infringement intended.

Bishop was dead.

 

Who knows who orchestrated the move… for it would have taken a boat load of money, power, greed, and the highest level of Illinois political corruption. Not to mention titanium balls.

 

For it was indeed orchestrated. Not only was Bishop dead but his men on both sides of the prison wall were dead. A riot in the prison between black and white took out most if not all of Bishop’s prison connections, and a very precisely timed street beef took out those working on the outside. In fact, it was so well timed, no one thought it could have been anything less than a government conspiracy to inaugurate a new crime lord into the streets of Chicago. Even Bishop’s non drug dealer network, his accountants, prostitutes, casino and bar owners, drivers, bodyguards, investigators, and bag men felt the squeeze as they also got looped into the melee. Many were found dead, and others were still missing. The sense of dread was palpable, as the bodies started to pile up. The last count was approximately 65 confirmed dead that could be directly linked to Bishop and another 37 hanger’s on in the cross fire. His illegal empire was decimated in the course of two days.

Everyone was involved – local, state, federal police, FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshal Service, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Special Investigators with their special task forces - with the heavier hitters all trying to claim jurisdiction. Even Homeland Security was interested, given Bishop’s wide reach.

And with all that involvement, came security, paranoia and investigations of which the likes Chicago had never before seen.

 

Dylan Bishop and his aunt were in protected custody and rapidly cleared of any involvement or knowledge of the events. Agos and Lockhart, however were under the magnifying glass as the last attorneys for Bishop. And no one cared about their mantra of “only representing Bishop’s legal businesses.” They were swamped in their own melee of investigators, forensic auditors, subpoenas and special task forces. People were on stress leave and ill, but it didn’t matter. No one was above suspicion. The scrutinization of every word, text, email, file and look of every employee was debilitating. And at the same time they were being protected around the clock for weeks and weeks after the rampage, in the unlikely event they themselves would become targets.

 

The entire city was on edge.

 

Except Alicia. All she could think about was Kalinda.

 

Alicia, of course, was embroiled in the scrum and questioned mercilessly about Bishop but she had been cut out of the frenzy early on as she had not had any legal dealings with him in over a year. The timing of her ill-fated run for State’s Attorney inadvertently helped her distance herself from all private sector attorney business. More to the point, she couldn’t have cared less about the Bishop situation. She was trying to keep herself out of the public spotlight, as she had had enough scandal in her life to last three or four lifetimes. She was acutely aware that her Sainthood moniker had been tarnished with the State’s Attorney run, and didn’t want anything else to drag her through the mud.

 

Her private life was where her priorities lay. And what niggled at her now was Kalinda.

 

It had been 17 months since Kalinda had vanished. No word, no letter, no cryptic message, no bottle of Tequila left at Alicia’s apartment door in the wee hours of the night. In Alicia’s logical being, she didn’t really expect to hear anything. Their last conversation had been brief and Kalinda had said outright “I don’t think so,” when Alicia asked her if she would ever see Kalinda again.

 

When Alicia was too tired for logic however, she let her mind drift to a more emotional plane and wondered if seeing Kalinda would again be possible now that the Chicago threat was eliminated.  As Alicia recalled their last goodbye, she couldn’t help but feel so terribly disappointed in herself in the way she handled that conversation. She remembered the day well. She was drinking alone, as that was becoming more common and as Alicia was trying to re-evaluate the last number of months, her mind was in a whirlwind. When Kalinda sashayed in, Alicia was so startled to see her that Alicia had trouble with the simplest of conversation. She just couldn’t seem to get it together at the bar that night. The conversation on her part was stilted, choppy and almost awkward, as if they weren’t even in the same bar.

 

Alicia had a hard time even looking at Kalinda. All she could see was Kalinda’s soulful eyes and think of all the time she had foolishly wasted. All the regrets she had and the missed opportunities started to bubble up.  
Kalinda however, pushed forward through the stilted conversation and asked Alicia if she received the letter she left for her. Alicia knew exactly where Kalinda was going with this enquiry but again just couldn’t find the right words. She had read the confession letter that Kalinda had written. She knew that Kalinda was once again protecting her and in doing so, was putting herself in significant jeopardy. When Kalinda told Alicia that she needed to hand in the confession so that she would be safe, Alicia looked directly at her. And for the first time in a really long time, she really looked at her. At that moment Alicia could see another, completely different, and unspoken question in Kalinda’s eyes. As Kalinda held her gaze, waiting to see if her opening would be answered or even acknowledged, Alicia folded like a cheap suit.

 

Not to be deterred, Kalinda spoke her mind about her time as Alicia’s friend. “My time with you was the best I have ever had.” As Alicia looked away and offered nothing sentimental in return, Kalinda began again but then decided against it. Perhaps she could sense Alicia’s confusion or turmoil or discomfort, and decided to let things go with a simple “good-bye.”

 

As Kalinda walked out of her life as easily as she had walked into it, Alicia just sat there at the bar, alone contemplating the envelope with the two letters in it.  
Looking back now, Alicia couldn’t believe how much of a coward she had been that night.

 

Kalinda had indeed written a confession letter to protect Alicia. She had also written a second and very personal letter to Alicia.

 

Kalinda knew that Alicia had read both letters. It was that inexplicable ability that Kalinda possessed that made her so devastatingly good at being an investigator. She could read people like no other, and Alicia Florrick was no exception. In fact, it always unnerved Alicia how Kalinda seemed to know her better than Alicia did herself. It seemed the harder she tried to conceal her thoughts, the easier it was for Kalinda to know them.  
Kalinda was waiting for some response to her personal letter that night. She had left the opening for that conversation. And she waited patiently, trying to give Alicia the time she may need. That was the unspoken question in Kalinda’s eyes, the one that Alicia didn’t even grace with an acknowledgement.

 

Since Kalinda had gone, Alicia read and re-read that letter more frequently than she would care to admit. And the more she read it, the more memories came back to her of the time when things were good between them. She couldn’t believe what a coward she had been at the time. She had demanded openness from Kalinda to restore their friendship but when it was offered, Alicia refused to acknowledge it. She had stomped on Kalinda’s attempt to fulfill her very own request. And to make matters worse, Alicia never twigged to the fact that perhaps this one gesture was the hardest task for Kalinda to accomplish. Facing an unknown future in an unknown town, Kalinda had laid herself on the emotional line, being completely honest and open, in the hopes of achieving some modicum of emotional connection, perhaps even forgiveness, for things left unsaid or actions undone. A clearing of the slate before her final departure.

 

 

And what was Alicia’s response?

Nothing.

Not one thing.

 

But 17 months can change everything.  
As she lay in bed, reading the letter one more time, with its frayed edges, she is unsure if she is actually reading it or simply reciting it from memory.

 

_Dear Alicia,_  
_I am so very sorry things got so messed up between us. I never meant to hurt you. I just meant to escape. But to do that, I needed new identity papers…._

 

At that point Alicia put the letter down, and for the first time she was hopeful. The investigations into Bishop would likely take many more months, or perhaps years, but the frenzy of it had finally settled down. She was out of it. And she honestly could not care less what anyone found out about the entire ordeal. What she cared about was Kalinda.

 

After all this time, maybe Kalinda would be safe. Perhaps she could now come home….Come back to Chicago.

 

Come back to her.


End file.
